Steve Turner's book reveals the dentist John Riley, rather
than the Playboy executive Victor Lownes, as the person who gave LSD coffee to
the Beatles.Reviewer Ian Herbert
writes:

The experience spawned the surreal lyrics of Help!, which
went to number one in September 1965 with declarations such as "Now I find
I've changed my mind, opened up the doors" (after Aldous Huxley's
LSD-inspired Doors of Perception) and "My independence seems to vanish in
the haze."

I'll read Turner's book to see if he discusses the song
Help! as being about LSD phenomenology and whether his discussion is informed
by the present webpage, which has been online since at least October 2000.

John Lennon
biography - "Spring 1965 - John Lennon, Cynthia, George Harrison, and
Patti Boyd inadvertently take their first LSD trip when a dentist-friend of Harrison's [supplied by the LSD Johnny Appleseed, Michael
Hollingshead] spikes their coffee." [note: I bet it was *sweetened* coffee
- sweetened with the Divine Frosting, 200 mics per teaspoon]

Michael Hollingshead:

The above biography confirms that Rubber Soul was released
late enough after Lennon's first LSD experience to have been LSD-influenced.
However, I insist that the line "my independence seems to vanish in the
haze" and other lyrics in the song "Help" are almost certainly
an LSD allusion to LSD panic and prayer. I have heard both "Jan 65"
and "Aug 65" cited as dates for the release of the album
"Help".

One place, I read that the album "Help" was
released in January 1965. Elsewhere, I read that the album was released August
1965. My hypothesis is that the song "Help" was written *after*
Lennon had taken LSD several times, and is full of double-entendres that allude
to standard LSD experiences.

Rubber Soul, in late 1965, is packed full of quite adept LSD
encoding, so it is very reasonable to propose that the song "Help"
contains LSD allusions, if it was recorded just a few months earlier than
Rubber Soul and at least several weeks after Lennon's first LSD session, most
likely after at least 4 or 5 LSD sessions. The lyrics of "Help" certainly
look like masterful work of someone who is adept at alluding to LSD
experiences.

If someone claims that Help was written before Lennon had
first-hand experience with LSD, I would be highly skeptical and would look for
a secret history of his having taken LSD *before* the date of writing the song
"Help". It is unbelievable that Help was written without first-hand
experience with LSD; it matches the standard LSD lyrical encoding techniques
too perfectly to be a coincidence.

Song: Help!

When I was younger, so much younger than today
I never needed anybody's help in any way
But now these days are gone and I'm not so self assured [self-confidence
falls apart during altered state]Now I find I've changed my mind, opened up the doors [LSD changes the
mind, opens up the doors of perception]

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round [consider: strange loop of self-control;
common "whirling" theme]Help me get my feet back on the ground [this is the opposite of the
desirability of floating while in love; a different sort of floating]
Won't you please, please help me [prayer to be rescued from helplessness, loss
of ego/ loss of controllership]

And now my life has changed in oh so many ways [radically changed perception of
one's life and being during LSD session]My independence seems to vanish in the haze [allusion to loss of egoic
control & loss of sense of metaphysical free will, allusion to perceptual
blurring]
But every now and then I feel so insecure [instability of mental model
of personal control in dissociative state. "every now & then" --
altered view of time, time fragmentation]
Now I know I need you like I've never done before [need who? girl, or
compassionate higher creator/controller entity?]

Help if you can I'm feeling down [fall of Icarus when transgressed into
god-realm]
And I do appreciate you being round [in this state, learn appreciation of
divine-agency realm]
Help me get my feet back on the ground [flying too high from LSD]
Won't you please, please help me

Help
I need somebody
Help
Not just anybody [needs a special, higher-level rescuer/savior]
Help
You know I need someone
Help

American Heritage dictionary:

independent: Not governed by a foreign power;
self-governing. Free from the influence, guidance, or control of another or
others; self-reliant: an independent mind. Not determined or influenced by
someone or something else; not contingent. Not dependent on or affiliated with
a larger or controlling group or system. Not relying on others for support,
care, or funds; self-supporing.

During ego loss, ego death, loss of control -- one becomes
aware of one's *dependence* on the Ground of Being which originates one's
thoughts and acts of will at every point in time.

Related Posts

>>I have
an ancient interview with John Lennon on a reel to reel tape. In the long ago
radio interview, John Lennon said that the the song "Help" was written
after a recording session while on LSD. He said that he was terrifed in front
of the microphone. Presumably, he was having a very intense psychedelic
experience. Maybe, even a *bad* trip.

>>He also said in the interview that he must have
taken a thousand "trips". A friend told me of someone who had taken a
similar amount of acid. He said that the fellow was barely able to function
much of the time. He would repeatedly go in and out of an intense altered
state. It is dubious to think that Lennon had taken a thousand trips.

>>The interviewer mentioned that the song "Lucy
in the Sky with Diamonds" was obviously about LSD. Then he pointed out the
words Lucy, Sky, Diamonds. Lennon remarked coyly that he had never thought of
that connection. In his later years Lennon wrote a song called "Mind
Games". It is apparent that anything that Lennon said should be taken with
a grain of salt.

There are two competing historical accounts of when Lennon
first used LSD, which was from Michael Hollingshead in the form of sugar
frosting in coffee at Hollingshead's house. If I recall, the accounts say late
1964 or early 1965.

dc wrote:

>>I looked in "Acid Dreams" to see what
they had to say about Lennon's acid usage in tems of dating, his first use. It
says he and George were "slipped" acid in a beverage, at a dinner at
a friends house, in "early 1965" and tells of his initial freak out.

Michael Hoffman wrote:

I estimate that to write the LSD-oriented song
"Help!", Lennon must have had around 3-7 LSD sessions prior to
writing the song. Not just 1 session, nor 1000 sessions. This sort of
exclamation and discovery of the need for rescue generally doesn't happen at
the very beginning of a series of loose-cognition sessions, nor does it wait
very long.

A single LSD session has a quick ramp up to the peak,
followed by a long decline -- so does the mind discover the wonders of the
altered state over the course of many sessions. The most amazing discovery is
not in the first or second session, nor the 1000th, but more like the number of
planets. For the most interesting acid-inspired album by a Classic/Heavy Rock
group, look for their second album in which they evidence some knowledge of LSD
-- not their first LSD album, nor their 7th LSD album.

>>I have an ancient interview with John Lennon on a
reel to reel tape. In the long ago radio interview, John Lennon said that the
song "Help" was written after a recording session while on LSD.

Michael Hoffman wrote:

That confirmation is highly valuable, and enables me to
move from theoretically 99% certain that Help! is an LSD song and Beatles'
first LSD song, to 100% certain.

Bob P wrote:

>>He said that he was terrifed in front of the
microphone. Presumably, he was having a very intense psychedelic experience.
Maybe, even a *bad* trip.

>>He also said in the interview that he must have
taken a thousand "trips".

By what time?

>>It is dubious to think that Lennon had taken a
thousand trips.

>>The interviewer mentioned that the song "Lucy
in the Sky with Diamonds" was obviously about LSD. Then he pointed out the
words Lucy, Sky, Diamonds. Lennon remarked coyly that he had never thought of
that connection.

Michael Hoffman wrote:

And if you believe that pretense of innocence, you'll
believe the most fantastic things imaginable, anything at all.

>>In his later years Lennon wrote a song called
"Mind Games". It is apparent that anything that Lennon said should be
taken with a grain of salt.

>>[The book] Acid Dreams quotes
Lennon as saying he had taken LSD more then a thousand times, and "I got a
message on acid that you should destroy your ego," he later explained,
"and I did, you know. I was reading that stupid book of Leary's
(Psychedelic Book of the Dead) and all that shit. We were going through a whole
game that everyone went through and I destroyed myself... I destroyed my ego
and I didn't believe I could do anything."

>>The book then goes on to say:

>>"Lennon's obsession with losing his ego
typified a certain segment of the acid subculture in the mid- and late 1960's.
Those who got heavily into tripping often subscribed to a mythology of ego
death that Leary was fond of preaching. The LSD doctor spoke of a chemical
doorway through which one could leave the "fake prop- television-set
America" and enter the equivalent of the Garden of Eden, a realm of
unprogrammed beginnings where there was no distinction between matter and
spirt." etc, "Acid Dreams" Page 183

…One must dig in and seriously investigate: this
need was proven by my research into the Beatles' song "Help!": a
careless assessment says it was written too early to have mystic altered state
allusions, but a serious investigation reveals that it has perfect timing
assuming heavy use of the mystic state after the initiation of John Lennon at
Michael Hollingshead's place some months before writing the song -- assuming
that Lennon immediately took to heavy use of the mystic altered state.

I agree that those songs have a high density of strong
candidates for allusions to entheogenic mystic-state cognition. A year ago,
people's suggestions were almost always off the mark -- lacking a high
occurrence of the standard key metaphors. Once you know the code, it's an easy
breakthrough.

Follow the command in the song The Body Electric:
"change the mode -- crack the code". It really didn't take me any
time at all. When was the very first time I discovered the deliberate encoding
of loosecog allusions? Probably around 1994 with the Rush album Caress of
Steel. Everyone knows that 60s Rock was "about psychedelics".

But to find just how extensive was the use of systematic
code of double-entendres and allusions, I had to actually survey many lyrics
looking not for direct words about psychedelics, but rather, *indirect*,
*coded* words. The Byrds' Eight Miles High -- they were forced to claim it was
about flying and not psychoactives. And Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was
explained as an arbitrary whimsical picture by a child.

How much were the alchemists *forced* to innovate and
create a coding scheme? How much were Catholic mystics *forced* to use obscure
and emotional sounding language? How much are Christ-myth scholars forced to
write obvious nonsense like "people must have had different constitutions
in late antiquity such that mere wine produced intense psychoactive
effects"?

…

The Beatles' 1965 album _Rubber Soul_ was a nice
transitional point where the songs were supposedly pop relationship songs, but
used phrasings that were chosen to allude to the altered state, as first done
in the song Help! written in early 1965, shortly after John Lennon's first
visit with Michael Hollingshead.

Lennon's his first experiences almost immediately resulted
in a song with full, complete, and strong use of the altered-state lyric
encoding technique -- because nothing could be more natural than to, as Spacemen
3 put it, "take drugs to make music to take drugs to". It's a
no-brainer of an idea to write lyrics that reflect the overloaded meaning
dynamics that occur, and expect these lyrics to sound innocent or arbitrary to
the listener in the default state of cognition, but to be recognized when that
same listener is in the matching loosecog state.

>>You mention that Allegro will be vindicated. Rest
assured that you too will be.

Michael Hoffman wrote:

…

I should be vindicated for providing and defining the
right kind of combination of entheogen experience, ego death explanation, view
of determinism, and an effective approach to decoding the allegory of the Cross
and Judeo-hellenistic mystery-religion allegory in general. The approach I've
defined enables rationally and efficiently solving all puzzles of this
allegorical type, including acid-rock lyrical allusions to the mystic altered
state.

My mystery-encoding theory of High Classic Rock lyrics
enables recognizing and identifying all allusions to the LSD altered state,
regardless of the exact musical style, era, or artist: for example, I'm the
only one who identifies the Beatles song Help! as being essentially an
acid-rock song.

Everything that has been written about this song claims it
is about mundane drug problems. But the lyric clusters themselves betray that
reading and clearly indicate instead that, in all likelihood, this looks to be
a song that is mainly about the *high* drug problem, The Problem at the end of
time, the timeless problem of self-control and entheogenic, religious
ego-death.

Everyone in the world says differently, but the reading
itself is compelling, and indeed, when you investigate the history of John
Lennon's drug discoveries, it indeed appears that he wrote Help! very soon
after his first experiences of LSD and cannabis. When you reexamine the history
and the political context of the time, it unlikely, perhaps even impossible
that Help! is merely a mundane call for people to help John Lennon break away
from addiction to drugs, drugs of the non-entheogenic type.

Similarly, when you take politics of consciousness into
consideration, it is impossible that Rush is not heavily alluding to the
phenomena of the entheogen mystic state in their late 1970s albums.

…

No one who has used LSD and cannabis would vouch for the
scenario we are expected to believe. Conventional writers about the Beatles
would have us believe that John Lennon discovered LSD and cannabis and then
proceeded to write a song about desperately needing help to get his feet back
on the ground after opening up the doors, but the song doesn't refer mainly to
the standard LSD phenomena of loss of control and ego death -- no, the cry for
help is what the published interviews say, "I was too into drugs, of the
regular sort, and pleaded for help from people."

That is mystery-religion secrecy, which is needed throughout
the Western history of domination hierarchies. Political oppression has caused
mystics to resort to veiled language and false stories ever since domination
hierarchies began.

Given the oppression of cannabis and LSD in the mid to
late 1960s, how could the top Rock band broadcast
an invitation to all the youth to overthrow the elder establishment, and go
ahead and ingest cannabis and LSD for the resurgence of real religious
experiencing? By explicitly mystery-encoding the invitation: the magical mystery
tour is hoping to take you away, dying to take you away, today, in the magic
bus that is destined to lose control and crash in a religious climax in the
cerebral and spiritual revolution at the end of history. Psychedelic and acid
rock was certainly political.

Politics interpenetrates with religious experiencing and
lyrics. The epic first side of the High Classic Rock album 2112 is about the
politics of consciousness -- it criticizes the elders, the priests, the average,
and expresses manic depression, and discovering something life-changing while
looking through a waterfall -- an "electric guitar", but what is the
electric guitar about? Ask Jimi Hendrix, the acid-disintegrated god of electric
guitar. He "performed" -- that is, he sarcastically demolished as
hypocrisy - - the song Star Spangled Banner.